Last year, with the help of Dr. Michael Gerson Professor of Psychology and a slight of hand magician, we presented a lecture-demo called “Magic and CyberSecurity”.

I have always been fascinated by magic (who isn’t) and it occurred to me that there were a lot of parallels between how we as humans perceive illusions and how those same perceptions make us vulnerable to Cyber attack. Much of it all boils down to neuroscience and they way our brains process input.

Here’s an example: mirror neurons. These neurological pathways cause us to involuntarily mimic what we see. Have you ever seen someone shrug their shoulders and found yourself shrugging your shoulders? A more universal example is when someone simply smiles at us. It’s hard, not to smile back. We are neurologically predisposed to a sort of monkey-see-monkey do reaction.

When a magician leverages our perceptions through imagery or misdirection we are focused on the illusion. We want to figure it out. We drill down with all our energy and attention trying to catch them, to discover the trick. And even after all that focused concentration, we are delighted when our perceptions fail us and the magician wins. Presto change ‘O – magic. We enter into the relationship with the magician for entertainment, we know that nothing really bad is ever going to happen to us.

Guess what? Criminals read. Criminals study. If you think for a moment that they are not as crafty as magicians, think again. Sure, there are amateurs out there who take the cookie cutter approach with the same old tired phishing campaigns. But what about the ones who are as practiced and knowledgeable about human perception as a magician, or a neuroscientist? They are out there.

Framing it this way gives us pause. Treat every email you receive as a magician’s trick. Drill down deep and look as hard as you would trying to catch a magician because if you are fooled, their isn’t a reward, there’s a penalty.

 Just before night fell on May 31st, 1911 the sky was so clear you could see for miles. And then, look what happened when they stopped paying attention. An iceberg got in the way.

These are the times we find ourselves in. We have gone through the worst of it, we have taken our work home, we have used our personal computers, with every distraction we were able to navigate the icebergs. And now we believe we are out of danger, when just the opposite is true.

We have reported that since the pandemic began there has been an increase of 400% in CyberCrime. We have also reported that the run-up to the election was a critical moment to remain vigilant. And now we might be heaving a sigh of relief because the night sky seems clear.

If you think that the incidence of CyberCrime is automatically going to reverse course, just the opposite is true. Bad actors are going to try and take advantage of a world that is heaving a sigh of relief.

Now more than ever is the time to batten down the hatches. A time to be cautious and aware. The sky may look clear, but remember the Titanic.

Stop the world, I wanna get off. My OS has been updated 12 times since Wednesday, my watch is overheating and now I have a rash. The fridge is not talking to the toaster and I think I need to take them to couple’s therapy. I’m pretty sure my insurance wont cover it.

I walked by my home office last night and a feeling of Christmas washed over me. It was like I was a kid again peeking at the Christmas tree, all the equipment was off, but the twinkling lights of chargers and adapters, of monitors and sleeping CPU’s made me hearken back to my childhood and the twinkling lights. Well, I thought, now I’ve done it, I have done what I berate retailers for doing. I have put out the holiday directions before Thanksgiving, something I swore I would never do. I should post a picture, it really was pretty. And ridiculous.

But this is my world. It all started with a laptop. But no, that was not enough. I added a monitor only to realize the laptop didn’t have enough juice. A desktop, a Mac, an Android tablet, a circus of video equipment all neatly integrated. A desk that raises and lowers itself, another even larger monitor (now there are four). A video lighting system, a green screen, oh, and a partridge in a pear tree. There were 7 Lords, but I asked them to leave. My name is Don and I have a problem.

I suppose I could convince myself that I am a collector like one who collects art or Hummel figurines or spoons; all of which would be more reasonable. But I have become a hoarder of technology and there’s not a 12 step program in sight.

I’d have a giant garage sale, or an auction, but I am sure I would outbid everyone and even end up with more twinkly things to add to my menagerie. So the only thing I can do is capitulate. I have given in, and now I must give up. I must resolve myself to my weakness.

And saddest of all. I use every single piece of this gear.

An audience impatiently waits for the curtain

some soothing, some calming, some sweet reverie

instead to their horror the subject of terrors

another dry lecture on Cybersecurity.

The pain, oh the pounding, the aching of brain,

when nothing of interest or fancy or whim

just another dry lecture on the evils and folly

of clicking on links both evil and grim.

Oh look at the countenance on faces left wanting

for a glimmer of hope or reprieve from their sin,

but naught they receive for their pain and their trouble

but scolding from strangers and awful chagrin.

They’re told that the problem

lies square on their shoulders,

The only true factor this sad human race

who cannot be trusted with tablet or laptop

together they’re falling right down on their face.

Is it any wonder that of all of the topics

presented to them by harbingers of doom

They listen and look on in quiet desperation

they’d pay any price for release from this room.

And yet there is hope for reprieve from this madness

Of returning to a sweet and gentler time

whey Cybersecurity was less about omens

and humans be pardoned, released from their crimes.

The answer quite simple is found in the moment

When we can abandon the awful lament,

The machines are the issue

They’re stealing our freedom

unplug them forever in blessed silence.

Alonso Quihana

Encryption plays a major role in the flow of sensitive information on the Internet. Most of us are unaware of what encryption is or what role it plays in our everyday online existence. The next time you are sitting at your computer, on Google Chrome or Firefox browser, notice the tiny lock next the URL or the address of the site you are on. That lock means your connection is secure and encrypted. Unlike the words on this page, what is transmitted through the Internet looks more like this “WTq8zYcZfaWVvMncigHqwQ”, with differing encryption strengths and acronyms such as AES and RSA. What you type is encrypted when you press enter and is decrypted at your destination server back into English.

November is Native American Heritage Month. During World War I and primarily during World War II, Native American soldiers fluent in both English and tribal languages were enlisted as Code Talkers. Code talking is a form of encryption, used before computers took over to transmit secret messages. Code talkers were assigned in pairs, one at each end of the conversation, using Native American words to essentially encrypt secret messages and keep them out of the hands of the enemy. Initially a Native language word was used for each letter of the English Alphabet, for example the letter A would be encrypted as “wo-la-chee” in Navajo. Later sophistication combined direct translation of English words into Native words. The code they developed remained unbroken through the end of WWII.

Code talkers from at least 14 Native nations such as Navajo, Choktaw, Cherokee, Lakota and Cree were enlisted by different branches of the military. They had to keep their work secret and didn’t receive recognition of their contribution to the war effort until information was declassified in 1968. Among several recognition ceremonies in the years since, the original 29 World War II Navajo code talkers were presented with the Congressional Gold Medal in 2000.

Submidtted by: Zareh Marselian

Back before computers. Yea, I know that sounds ridiculous. If it helps, picture Seth Meyers in one of his “In my day” sketches. Got it? Anyway, “Back before computers” when cars had carburetors, VHS tapes were in “Beta” and King Ferdinand staked Columbus to a road trip; the early signs of my entrepreneurship were awakening. One day I had an idea for organizing all my papers. Correspondence, bills, calendar, parking tickets, photos, recipes and doodles. I had invented a giant monitor.

On my desk I had a paper clip. I remembered as a kid we would string them together to make chains. These chains had no particular purpose other than to make it hard to get a paper clip when you needed one. I grabbed a thumb tack and tacked my string of paperclips to the wall and inserted a doc. Another paper clip – another row of documents, then another and another until my wall was neatly organized with the detritus of my life.

With a pen and rub-on letters I began to design my first advertisement.

I was going to make it big. I invented the Wall-File a new technology that would change everything. One simple ad in the back of Popular Mechanic.

Then, I realized my conscience wouldn’t allow me to sell 40 paperclips and a thumbtack for $2.95 – That and my “Check” was going the wrong direction.

That was the name of my company when CLU found me. I was in private practice serving the needs of seniors in Ventura CA. I started out by fixing a few computers for folks at my church, and before I knew it, “word of mouth” had changed the occasional favor into a small business. It happened in the laundry room.

One of my “favor” folks posted a simple flyer in the laundry room at their mobile home park. It was one of those hand written flyers pinned to the builtin board with tiny slits at the bottom with my name and phone that you could tear off. I didn’t see it coming.

Before long I was getting calls almost every day from a senior who was having hardware or software problems or just needed some training. Some had inadvertently stepped into a steaming pile of malware or worse yet hand fallen head-long into a ransomware scheme. It wasn’t long before I had to hire an employee and so I hired my wife (who is also a geek) because I got her cheap.

Here’s the funny part, I began to feel like an old country doctor, traveling from home to home and being paid with chickens and apple pie. Let me tell you, if you don’t know, homemade apple pie is a payment of incalculable price, especially when made by the loving hands of an adopted grandparent. More than that, they always tried to pay me more than my fee.

When I started, I didn’t have grandparents of my own any more. Now I have a bushel basket.

The biggest lesson that I learned is patience. The second lesson is, that when you can put a smile on someone’s face it makes your day worth while. The third lesson I learned, is that it is better to give than receive. However, if you get an apple pie, don’t turn it down.

For anyone who has ever seen the musical “Annie” you will recognize this as the title song. It is an ear-worm, and now that I have mentioned it to you, it will be stuck in your head the rest of the day. But the sun will come out, and it will be beautiful. In these words we are reminded to reflect on the good things. So here’s today’s list of good things that are going to happen to you in tech.

1. Your computer is going to boot right up. No hits, no runs, no errors.
2. You are going to approach your day with confidence that everything in your world that is plugged in, will exceed your expectations.
3. Your internet will be twice as fast without any reason whatsoever.
4. Your coffee will stay hot longer, and your cup will never be empty.
5. You will not be interrupted by an emergency.
6. You will not create an emergency.
7. You will step outside occasionally and enjoy the view.
8. Lunch will be delicious.
9. Everyone on Zoom will smile, right at you.
10. At the end of the day, you will shut everything down.

If there’s anything we can take away from these trying times it is that our focus is better and maybe, just maybe, the little things like the sunshine will make us just a bit happier than it used to.